Utetheisa pulchella ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5354 (1), pp. 1-503 : 300

Utetheisa pulchella ( Linnaeus, 1758)

COMMON NAME (S): Crimson Speckled Footman.

SYNONYM(S): Noctua pulchra Denis & Schifferm ̧ller, 1775; Lithosia amabilis Trost, 1801 ; Deiopeia candida Butler, 1877 ; Deiopeia thyter Butler, 1877 ; Deiopeia antennata ( Swinhoe, 1893b) .

IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE)

DISTRIBUTION: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia , Nigeria, Oman, Réunion, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: ‘Lusaka’, in Lusaka Province.

LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): Host plants of the taxon include: one Boraginaceae species ( Trichodesma zeylanicum (Burm.f.) R.Br. ) in the Réunion ( Martiré & Rochat 2008) and four Boraginaceae species ( Trichodesma sp. , Myosotis sp. , Heliotropium sp. and Lithospermum sp. ), one Musaceae species ( Musa sp. ) and one Malvaceae species ( Gossypium sp. ) in unnamed African country or countries ( Pinhey 1975; Wiltshire 1990). The African Moths (2019) webpage lists the following as larval foodplants of the taxon: four Boraginaceae species ( Heliotropium indicum L., Myosotis sp. , Cystostemon sp. and Trichodesma zeylanicum (Burm.f.) R.Br. )), one Boraginaceae species ( Musa paradisiaca subsp. sapientum (L.) Kuntze ex K.Schum.) and several grass ( Musaceae ) species nyet to be identified.

SOURCES: African Moths 2019; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Hampson 1901a; Martiré & Rochat 2008; Pinhey 1975; Wiltshire 1990.

Genus Zadadrina Kiriakoff, 1954b